File No. 763.72/7472
The Italian Ambassador ( Macchi di Cellere) to the Counselor for the Department of State ( Polk)
[Received October 26.]
My Dear Mr. Polk: With reference to your letter of the 16th instant, File No. 763.72/7249, I desire to inform you that I hastened to transmit its contents, by cable, to my Government. I am now in a position to state that the Italian Government has appointed, as members to the Inter-Ally Council in Europe for the execution of the functions indicated in the letter of the Secretary of the Treasury, under date of July 18, 1917,1 His Excellency Baron Mayor des Planches, Prof. B. Attolico and Col. A. Mola, who belong to the High Commissariat of London.
[Page 575]It is a gratification to me to inform you that my Government has learned with the greatest satisfaction that a delegate of the United States to the Inter-Ally Council in Europe will be designated very promptly, and to express to you, in the meantime, the earnest desire of my Government that the delegate of the U.S.A. will accept the presidency of the Inter-Ally Council.
I shall be greatly obliged to you if you will kindly convey the above said appointments as well as the expression of this desire to the Secretary of the Treasury.
As you may well believe, it would be very gratifying to me, should I be put in position to assure my Government that this desire—which is inspired by the intention to show a mark of the greatest appreciation for the part taken by the United States in the Inter-Ally Council—will find here a favorable acceptance.
I am [etc.]